Well, here’s the girls’ party dresses – finally.  I did take pictures on the evening of the wedding, but they were horribly overexposed and goofy and not very good generally speaking.  DD2’s dress was fine, but DD3’s yellow dress reflected every single possible iota of light, and if there were any decently lighted shots, she was pulling silly faces – not very flattering!  So I had them do a re-take this past Sunday.

I made DD2’s dress of the most glorious fuchsia Swiss cotton.  It’s just divine to look at and handle and the colour, I think, is spectacular. The sash is a lavender duppion.  DD2 loves intense colours.  I used Burda 02-2011-146 for both dresses.  The pattern calls for about 5 yards of fabric per dress to make the big super-twirly skirt.  Unfortunately, there was only about 2 yards of the cotton, so just made it up and cut as many panels of the gored skirt as I could to get as much fullness as I could.  And to do that, I had to put a seam down the CF of the skirt.  DD3’s yellow seersucker was cheaper and there was a full bolt of it, so I was able to get a bigger skirt, although I didn’t do the full 6 half-circles the pattern called for. I originally cut the bodices for both girls a full size 152 because they are very close in size.  Sewing for DD2 is a bit of a challenge because she’s very petite and it’s difficult to get the right proportions in a garment for her.  The size 152 fit her perfectly, although I could have made a 1/2 short waist adjustment.  But otherwise this dress is perfect.  The skirt is 27 inches long, not the 36 inches Burda wanted for the full-length look.  I wanted a wearable dress, not a special occasion dress.

See how perfect this bodice fits?  I was initially a little concerned about the front gaping, as the neckline is cut on the bias.  But I interfaced the lining and it worked beautifully.  She’s got just enough up top to fill it out a little, and I think it’s the best dress neckline I’ve seen on her.

She loves her Lelli Kelly’s.

Another shot of the bodice.  Needless to say, she really likes this dress.For DD3’s version, I cut the neckline on the straight grain, and boy, did it gape.  She sat beside me during the wedding ceremony, and I took one glance sideways and wished I’d tacked the CF.   As it was, I had to re-cut the bodice after the first fitting because the seersucker didn’t look so great with the neckline cut on the bias, and the bodice was HUGE on DD3.  I’ve slip-stitched the overlap in place for these photos.  I should have done a petite adjustment on her dress, although I did cut it down to a size 140 for the final version, but I didn’t, and it’s not horribly noticeable except when she wears the dark satin ribbon in these pics.  For the party I’d made a light blue duppion sash similar to DD2’s that was a lovely compliment to the pale yellow.  This is my first Burda Style kids pattern, and I’m really impressed with how the patterns fit through the shoulders.

This is a better picture of the yellow seersucker.  It’s a very pale lemon colour that looks ivory.  Needless to say it was really difficult to photograph decently.  She’s moving a snail in our garden below.You can see the fullness of the skirt in this picture.  And I left out three of the semi-circles called for by the pattern!

I fully lined both dresses.  This isn’t called for by Burda – they only suggest lining the bodice – but dresses wear better fully lined, even if they are for children, and I was a bit concerned about coverage for the yellow dress.  The only other fussy little thing I did was add sash holders to keep them in place.  I used self-fabric for the Swiss cotton and narrow satin ribbon for the yellow. And thanks to everyone who weighed in on the purple maxi dress.  I’ve had to put it away for a couple of weeks because I’m doing some significant sewing on request.  I’m hoping to post on those projects, but the purple dress will have to wait for a while.  Who knows?  With the hot steamy summer we’ve been having I may even get to wear it through a hot September!